Benfica will host Toulouse in the Round of 16 of the Europa League. After a woeful start to their Champions League campaign, Benfica remarkably roared back late. The visitors often put poor domestic form to one side to progress behind Liverpool in their group.
Preview (Benfica vs. Toulouse)
Benfica has not looked back since turning around their Champions League campaign late in the group stage, as seen by their 11-game winning streak that began with their matchday six victory over Red Bull Salzburg. Benfica had lost all four of its games and appeared set to be eliminated from Europe, It came after an odd 3-3 draw with Inter Milan in which they wasted a three-goal lead. Roger Schmidt’s team defeated Salzburg on the road in Austria to move up to third place. Their current success has been largely down to them finding their shooting form. They have scored an amazing 35 goals in just 13 games.
However, one of the two mistakes occurred over the weekend when a determined Vitoria Guimaraes team held Benfica, requiring a late equalizer from Arthur Cabral for Schmidt’s team to draw even. However, Porto and Braga now appear to be out of it. This season’s title battle will be an all-Lisbon affair, with the two locked on 52 points.
For the time being, though, attention will be on Europe as Benfica makes their way back to the Europa League following two consecutive Champions League quarterfinal exits. There will be expectations that the Portuguese team will do better this time around. They lost in the first round of the knockout stages in both the 2019–20 and 2020–21 seasons. Benfica advanced to the finals in 2013 and 2014, but they were defeated in both cases. They going eight consecutive European championships without a victory.
Team News
With the recent recovery of Casper Tengstedt, Juan Bernat is the sole player currently out for Benfica. For the match against Guimaraes over the weekend, Schmidt was almost at full strength. He is probably going to stay that way until the French team comes to town. Despite being left on the bench, Cabral scored their equalizer in the ninetieth minute. It wqs his fourth goal in as many games. As a result, he is probably going to start in this lineup.
Logan Costa and Moussa Diarra, who were playing for the Africa Cup of Nations over the weekend, were both able to return to Toulouse, although they were only listed as replacements. Thanks to injuries, manager Carlos Martinez will continue to be without Denis Genreau and Zakaria Aboukhlal. Babicka scored three goals for the Cypriot debutants in the Europa League group stage, but it was still one goal short of Thijs Dallinga, who will lead the visiting assault. Babicka was in excellent form with Aris Limassol.
Benfica 3-0 Toulouse
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